A Guide to Derailing Conversations

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You sure did a good job of informing a completely fictional straw-man about the dangers of his hypothetical privileges, hypothetical opinions and hypothetical arguments to support them.

Not only that, you managed to do it in this completely unfunny, endless sarcastic tone. That sure makes one wonder who would be deriding who if those fictive conversations were to actually take place.

Alright, that’s enough of that shitty tone for me. I also noticed how you frown upon the entire academic world for “having little to do with reality”. Then what about airplanes or supertankers or rockets or household machinery such as dry-cleaners or dishwashers? Are those not real enough for you? Or do you think we were able to invent those things through the predictive power we got from personal anecdotes instead of pursuing the scientific method? Since even so much as documenting the latter would classify you as an academic, I’m sure you’d hesitate to answer that question truthfully.

I sure hope simply by arguing against you I am not in some way “marginalizing” you. After all, I couldn’t help but notice that even the most generic arguments or fallacies for that matter had to somehow converge towards this vague notion of “marginalization”. I’d argue that marginalization does not occur when arguing for or against any views about marginalized groups. After all, when I’d argue against the wage gap surely I’m not suddenly contributing to its hypothetical existence. I am therefore not marginalizing anyone, I’m doing no more and no less than contributing to a discussion. Since discrimination is illegal and contributing to a discussion certainly is not, even the justice system would agree you can’t just “marginalize” a group by making up arguments for some political view, even if they’re fallacious or bigoted.

I’m sure glad you represent a minority when you attempt to stifle such a wide range of discussions and arguments and even all of academia based on these preconceived notions of who is privileged and who is marginalized, or what is supposedly real and what is not.

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This website is a simple, step by step guide to derailing an awkward conversation by dismissing or trivializing your opponent's perspective and experience. Just some of the many issues you can apply it to include: